{"id":102,"date":"2007-01-29T12:19:54","date_gmt":"2007-01-29T11:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/resource.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/29\/bmj-27-jan-2007\/"},"modified":"2007-01-29T12:19:54","modified_gmt":"2007-01-29T11:19:54","slug":"bmj-27-jan-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/29\/bmj-27-jan-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"BMJ 27 Jan 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The unnamed hero of this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/167\">editorial<\/a> on permanent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/167\">ventricular assist devices<\/a> in the UK is Peter Houghton, who, more than six years ago, was dying of heart failure. Stephen Westaby wanted to fit him with the then-experimental Jarvik 2000 LAD, and Philip Poole-Wilson was sent in to explain to him that it might not work.<!--more--> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"458\" height=\"10\" alt=\"More...\" src=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/themes\/advanced\/images\/spacer.gif\" \/>Peter won\u2019t mind me mentioning him by name because he has written a moving book about all this (<em>On Death, Dying,and Not Dying<\/em>) and has his own website (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.peterhoughton.org.uk\/\">www.peterhoughton.org.uk<\/a>). <em> <\/em>Now the two eminent professors who looked after him argue for much wider application of this technology, not just as a bridge to transplantation.<br \/>\nA host of shining angels here appeal to the god of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/191\">academic medicine<\/a> (if he exists) to come to their aid in a beneficent, world-changing programme of teaching and research. But who is this I see, hiding behind their gleaming wings? Beelzebub, stand forth! I know no angel called Richard Smith.<br \/>\nAn Australian population based <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/194\">study<\/a> casts doubt on the dogma that women should not get <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/194\">pregnant<\/a> within two years of treatment for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/194\">localised breast cancer<\/a> \u2013 six months is probably safe.<br \/>\n197   This <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/197\">systematic review<\/a> comparing treatment effects between <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/197\">animal experiments<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/197\">human clinical trials<\/a> is bound to be used by both sides in this emotionally-charged debate. There is widespread discordance which \u201cmay be due to bias or the failure of animal models to mimic clinical disease adequately<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The unnamed hero of this editorial on permanent ventricular assist devices in the UK is Peter Houghton, who, more than six years ago, was dying of heart failure. Stephen Westaby wanted to fit him with the then-experimental Jarvik 2000 LAD, and Philip Poole-Wilson was sent in to explain to him that it might not work. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/29\/bmj-27-jan-2007\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-richard-lehmans-weekly-review-of-medical-journals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2017\/02\/richard-lehman.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}